Samsung Galaxy J7 Core Quick Review – Gaming to the Core

Samsung has been releasing various models under its popular Galaxy J7 line up. The Samsuung Galaxy J7 Core is the most affordable among the bunch and it is marketed as a gaming centric device.How does it perform on a daily grind? Read on.

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Samsung Galaxy J7 Core Specs:

5.5 inch, HD Super AMOLED, 1280 x 720 resolution, 2.5D curved glass

Octa Core 1.6 GHz (Exynos 7870)

Mali T830 GPU

16 GB ROM, expandable via microSD card slot up to 256 GB (dedicated)

2 GB RAM

13 MP f/1.9 w/ AF and LED flash

5 MP f/2.2 w/ LED flash

Android 7.0 Nougat

3,000 mAh removable battery

Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot

Bluetooth 4.1, A2DP, LE

GPS, with A-GPS, GLONASS

Accelerometer, proximity

Cat.4 LTE

Price – P9,990

Status – Available at Samsung Experience stores and retailers

HARDWARE AND DESIGN

Looking at the Samsung Galaxy J7 Core, it remided us of many Galaxies in the past with the same design – plastic build, removable back, bezels galore. It is not a bad thing and it is quite understandable because of the price. Sometimes, we do miss plastic build because we think it is quite durable and last longer.

We are happy to know that Samsung opted for its own Super AMOLED display for this device. Expect saturated colors to pop. It is, however, it is not as vibrant as the flagships Galaxy S8/S8+ and Galaxy Note 8. Sunlight legibility is fine but the lack of adaptive brightness feature means you have to adjust screen brightness manually.

Geekbench score

Antutu Benchmark score

SOFTWARE AND PERFORMANCE

Samsung said that the Exynos 7870 chipset is a 14nm processor which is powerful enough to run intense games like Mobile Legends. Our daily grind has been quite fine. We never had problems with lags and delays. Our only concern though is the limited 2GB RAM. This means you have limited number apps open.

CAMERA

The 13 megapixel rear facing camera performs really well though we’ve seen better on this price range. The selfie camera is a bit underwhelming though it gets the job done.

CONNECTIVITY

There is no fingerprint scanner here but 4G/LTE, WiFi and Bluetooth are standard. Calls are clear with no issues and line is clear on the other end. Internet speed is within normal speeds too.

BATTERY

Adequate. That is the word that best describes its battery life. On light use we managed to get two full days of juice. If you use it mainly for gaming and content consumption, you’ll be getting roughly 10 hours of mixed moderate to heavy use.

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VERDICT

Samsung remained true with the things that the Samsung Galaxy J7 Core can do. It is truly fit for casual gaming. It falls short a bit on the display and the selfie camera plus the lack of a fingerprint scanner might turn off some people. But other than that everything is so good. 🙂